Right when the DCnU was announced, we at Multiversity had a myriad of reactions. One of our articles that we did featured every member of this site making just one wish for the relaunch. Some of us were specific, and some of us were not so specific – but we all knew next to nothing about the endeavor outside of a few rumors and one or two announced titles.
Now we know just about everything. We haven’t looked inside any of the actual books, and we won’t have full thoughts on the matter for another month (at least), but we can at least answer one question: “did DC make my wish come true?”
Check behind the cut to see who won and who lost in the upcoming relaunch from your favorite staff.
Original thoughts: Ok, so Superman is clearly different. There are rumors about him not being with Lois Lane anymore, and the costume is … well, it is what it is. I suppose this is an attempt to make Superman “more relevant,” and while the rumor is that Grant Morrison will be writing the character can we just have a Superman who is relevant but not inherently different? Superman is a fantastic character due to the core values and mythology that make him who he is over the 79 years he has existed. Superman is the hero we should all aspire to be. I’m fine with him being all “edgy” and “cool” to compete against Batmania, but can we not lose the most important part of him in between his rumpuses with Wonder Woman?
Eleventh Hour thoughts: It’s kind of too early to tell for mine, honestly. I wanted a Superman that was relevant and not a glossed-over relic who gets a comic because his name is Superman. However, without reading Action Comics or Superman, I don’t know if that is true or not. I can cross my fingers because Grant Morrison is writing Action Comics – which, alone, should boost sales quite high, I hope – but I am sad about the loss of Lois. Then again, there’s room to build, right? We’ll get there.
Walter Richardson
Original thoughts: My wish for DC? Make it count. Don’t just start a bunch of new series without much substance behind them. Every single one should get people talking. Writers that have a noted good touch with certain characters should be given the chance to reinvent that character (in other words, give the keys of the Batmobile to Scott Snyder, please), and others should be given books that will make people interested. “What? They put ______ on _______? Holy crap!” should be the typical response. Otherwise, it’s just a bunch of standard superhero fare that will continue to be given minimal attention, and that’s the last thing that DC wants to do with a risky move like this.
Eleventh Hour thoughts: My request? Well, it looks like DC completely disregarded it. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of things that I am excited for — such as Snyder as head Bat-writer, which I specifically requested — but so many of the 52 titles are just uninspiring. For every Jeff Lemire Animal Man, there are two titles that just sound okay and one title that sounds awful. For every unique, non-superhero title like Men of War, there’s yet another Batman title. Even though they aren’t necessarily publishing any more monthly comics than they have in the past, DC is still clearly going for a quantity over quality approach, and that isn’t what I wanted from this relaunch at all.
David Harper
Original thoughts: The only thing I want from DC is for them to stick to their guns with this. If they are committing to this, I don’t want a Crisis of Flashpointing Earths – Infinite! coming out in a year that retcons everything and puts everyone in their costumes that don’t have V-Necks. It is an audacious thing for them to do, but it will mean nothing and ultimately be a middle finger to fans (and prospective new fans) if they just go back to the way things were because this turns out to be a bust.
And if I had a second wish it would be John Rogers and Rafael Albuquerque on Blue Beetle again AND FOREVER! If Mr. Terrific has a title, Jaime Reyes should definitely have a title.
Eleventh Hour thoughts: At this point, I am sort of hitting 50% of my goals. More like 37.5% of my goals, as we did get a Jaime Reyes book, but it was Tony Bedard (solid) and Ig Guara (AWESOME!) instead of John Rogers and Rafael Albuquerque. So we got part of my goal with satisfactory replacements. But only time will tell on my main goal: that DC sticks to their guns and doesn’t go back to the way things were if sales don’t vastly improve. So far, sales are looking good, but it’s month four and beyond that will be the true battleground. But so far, so good on DC’s part.
Josh Mocle
Original thoughts: One Wish: An Animal Man ongoing with a competent creative team (Chris Roberson/Chris Burnham?).
Why? Because Animal Man has some of the most depth of any character in the DCU as well as one of the most intriguing backstories. To addo that, I’m fairly certain he still knows he’s a character in a comic book but just isn’t telling anyone. He’s an animal activist and vegetarian, too. Also, if DC revives a character that can talk to animals, they might as well go with the one that can talk to things other than fish and who, instead of moping about his dead kid for decades, forced the WRITER OF THE BOOK to write his whole dead family back to life. Take that, fishman!
Eleventh Hour thoughts: When thinking about what I personally wanted out of the DCnU, I went with a pretty selfish route and only wanted one of my favorite characters, Animal Man, to return to ongoing status and written by what I believe I phrased as a “competent” creative team. What I got was an Animal Man ongoing written by one of my biggest personal creative influences (Jeff Lemire) with so far stunning looking Travel Forman art that has been stated to take some of its cues from Grant Morrison’s legendary run on the character that made him a favorite to begin with and that will apparently hold a central role in the mystic side of the DC Universe. In short: I win.
Patrick Tobin
Original thoughts: My one wish for the DCU reboot or sideboot or bootleg or whatever is that they piss off as many people as humanly possible, from hardcore fan junkies to casual hot-or-cold readers, because maybe then it can reach a critical mass and form a singularity of everyone ragging on DC for this, that, or the third and I can have that much easier a time ignoring both DC and their fans. Unrelated sidebar semi-wish: perhaps some kind of evil counterpart team for the Teen Titans?
Eleventh Hour thoughts: Well, I didn’t get my team of evil counterparts for the Teen Titans. YET. But everyone’s crabby about no-Wally this, or Canadian-Booster that, or Chuck-Austen-being-excluded the third (well, maybe just our EIC Matt) — so I guess I got my first wish. I guess.
Brandon Burpee
Original thoughts: If there is one thing that I would like to see from DC post-reboot, it is for them to not blow off the multiverse and stick to the idea that the multiverse is finite (52). I’d really like to see this new DCU be one of the 52 Earths and have the current continuity remain as one as well. This gives them the ability to cater to all walks of fanhood. They wouldn’t need to necessarily have an ongoing based in the current continuity but they could allow it to grow in the background and age. Then in a few years we could look in on them and see how things are and maybe even provide a definitive ending to this continuity. Wouldn’t it be unique to see an actual end? Like all the Marvel: The End minis, but permanent and real.
I’m absolutely fine with the reboot. Kind of excited, actually. I just wouldn’t mind seeing an ending to the universe I grew up with. Just saying.
Eleventh Hour thoughts: I still stand by my original position that I hoped they would not blow off the multiverse, so I was jacked to hear this weekend that the JSA would return and would now reside on Earth-2. This makes me even more excited as i’d love to see a Shazam book that took place in its own corner of the multiverse.
I also still hope the current continuity remains an Earth of it’s own and that at some point we can see Elseworld tales that cover what occured there after the fact. That’s assuming that Flashpoint doesn’t render the current universe inert and dead to the world. Either way at this point I am just excited to see what’s coming our way.
Gilbert Short
Original thoughts: If there’s one thing I’m worried about with this new status quo, it’s the legacies DC is known for. And as a matter of fact, I’m most worried about Kyle Rayner. I’d like to see a Green Lantern Corps book with him and John Stewart, possibly with Peter J. Tomasi and Patrick Gleason at the helm once again. If there are two things those two know how to capture well, it’s the spirit of the Green Lantern Corps, and most importantly, Kyle’s place IN the Corps. As for John, I’d really love to see someone take a stab at him and not write him as an emotionless drone. We already have Bruce Wayne for that.
But while we’re on the subject of Bruce Wayne and legacies, I hope Damian doesn’t stand forgotten either.
Eleventh Hour thoughts: Well, my reactions to my wishlist now that the books are coming out are a mixed bag. I’m glad that Kyle hasn’t been forgotten and he has a place in the Corps, even if it’s not with John or Guy. But it’s a bit disappointing he’s a “New Guardian” when Larfleeze, Atrocitus, and Sinestro, among others have gone bye bye. The New Guardians line-up smacks of the B-Squad, and I’m not sure how long that will last.
And while Tomasi and Gleason aren’t helming the Green Lanterns, they’re taking over the team of Bruce Wayne and the other character I hoped they wouldn’t forget: Damian. But while they didn’t forget him, they chose instead to forget another Robin, and that’s Stephanie Brown. But at least she’s Spoiler I guess…
Ryan Closs
Original thoughts: If I could have one wish for the DCU after the reboot it’s that they’re not going to just tell superhero stories. Especially non-superhero stories in the shared universe of the DCU. I’d love a Swamp Thing horror book, Jonah Hex coming back, Ralph and Sue Dibney: Ghost Detectives, the return of Gotham Central or some other police procedural book, some kind of mystical book, some war book, maybe a political book with Checkmate involved. It would make the world a bigger, richer and show all sorts of different aspects. I’d love them to pattern it after Gotham Central where it’s all about the non-superpowered characters just trying to do their job but in a world where people like Superman and Batman exist.
Eleventh Hour thoughts: Did my DC Relaunch wishes come through? Some of them did, yeah. Swamp Thing book? Check. Jonah Hex book? Check. There aren’t a whole lot more than that however. Out of 52 relaunch books less than 10 are non-superhero. I know there are more books coming but everything announced so far are more superheroes. It’s a relaunch, sure but it sure doesn’t seem like a sea-change of new and interesting ideas. There’s also the lack of diversity in the art front, something I didn’t really consider before but after seeing the DC Fifty-Too project and seeing how things could look when most artists aren’t aping 90s popular styles I really wish we’d seen more diversity than this. Sure we’ve got people like Moritat and Cliff Chiang but they’re definitely in the minority here. I’m still more excited than not, and I’ll be giving most of these new books a shot on release day despite these complaints.
